Winching plates

[Larry Fisher]

Hi all,

A 3 ton hoist is enough to lift your entire shop with the piano in it!!!
Last I checked, in a crate, a 9 foot grand weighs in at around 1200 lbs.
minus the crate at 200 lbs and then cutting the remaining weight in half for
the cabinet and action, you've got 500 lbs for a 9 foot plate.  I use a boat
winch rated at 1200 lbs and they rate them conservatively so the
manufacturer doesn't get sued.  The winch is doweled into the wall so that
when a load is put on it, it would have to sheer about 5 or 6 half inch
dowels to break loose.  I then used cable pulleys and 3/8" eye screws (all
rated at 1000 lbs minimum) in various "popular" locations through out the
shop so that I can bring the resulting "block and tackle" configuration to
the piano instead of the piano to the lift.  I've lifted an entire 5 foot
grand minus the lid off the ground with this just to prove to a visitor that
it's strong enough.  When I had a 9 footer in there, and used it to lift the
end of the instrument to put a dolley under it, the wall that the winch was
anchored to buckled a bit, but then you would too if you had to lift that
sucker.  I've lifted one end of a full size old upright to facilitate
aligning the castor block with the rest of the filler blocks at the bottom
of the back of the piano.  I then glued, clamped and doweled the daylights
out of the blocks to provide strength.  All this done with the piano in the
air suspended by a moving strap attached to the hook from my winch.  The
entire set up cost me less than $100 and has saved me unmeasurable expense
and pain involving chiropractors, doctors, hospitals, lost income, and worst
of all, going without the aged fruits of central California valleys.

Standing on a small stool, I can operated the handle of the winch with one
hand while guiding the plate with the other.  Obviously this operation can
only be done in one area of the shop unless I want to run back and forth
from the stool to the piano.  I drew a diagram and wrote an article on this
in a Journal a while back.  Consider searching the archives of THE LIST for
details.

Lar

                                    Larry Fisher RPT
   specialist in players, retrofits, and other complicated stuff
      phone 360-256-2999 or email larryf@pacifier.com
         http://www.pacifier.com/~larryf/ (revised 10/96)
           Beau Dahnker pianos work best under water